During a weekend of uncertain road conditions, Chelsea Denofa was a constant force on his way to being crowned the Formula DRIFT 2016 Round 1: Long Beach Streets Champion.

Denofa’s path wasn’t an easy one as he started as the No. 14 seed after the qualifying round had to knock off the top three seeds in the competition including Frederic Aasbo the defending champion.

Before Saturday’s 32-racer event, the drivers agreed to enact pre-seeding after the qualifying round was canceled due to rain Friday.

“It feels so good,” Denofa said. “I’ve been working on this with my crew, multiple crews trying to make this combination work and multiple failures, and to finally get it to work is absolutely amazing.”

“(To beat) champion after champion, all these amazing drivers and somehow beating wiping them out, I have no idea (how I did it),” Denofa said. “I was just driving my heart out, doing the best I can, it just feels great.”

Aasbo, the reigning Formula DRIFT World Champion, finished in second after a tight battle with Denofa. Aasbo made the finals after defeating No. 32 Shengjun Zhang, No. 8 Matt Field and No. 4 Aurimas Bakchis in a rematch of last year’s final.

“Today I’m fine with being on this step,” Aasbo said. “Chelsea drove his heart out, (it’s been) a long time coming.”

The win was the first for Denofa after competing in the event for the fifth year. Gushi also finished in the top three in the event for the first time.

“I’ve been doing this for 13 years, and I have no had a single podium here,” Gushi said. “So this feels great.”

Formula DRIFT will head to Atlanta for its Round 2: Road to the Championship event, May 6-7.